WINNIPEG -- Seven years ago, Gerald Muswagon was all smiles as his troubled life took a fairy-tale turn when he won a $10-million lottery jackpot.

On Sunday, Mr. Muswagon hanged himself in his parent's garage.

It was a shocking end for a man who appeared to have the world at his fingertips, yet clearly never could grasp the instant fame and fortune he was handed through his lucky $2 Super 7 ticket.

"People are very upset, and this is all very surprising," said his cousin, Mike Muswagon. "But he had been very depressed lately, although he kept that part of him well hidden."

Mr. Muswagon, 42, somehow managed to do what seemed unthinkable and spent nearly every penny of his winnings in only a few years.

The former resident of Norway House in northern Manitoba was forced to take a job this summer doing heavy lifting on a friend's farm just to make ends meet while supporting his girlfriend and six young children in their modest Winnipeg home.

"I really wanted him to be set up for life, so he never had to work another day," said his cousin. "He should have been able to do that. But he made some very bad decisions."

Mr. Muswagon's spending habits were the stuff of local legend, as rumours began to spread throughout Winnipeg shortly after he won.

Most of them were true. He bought several new vehicles for himself and friends, purchased a house that turned into a nightly "party pad" and often celebrated his new lifestyle with copious amounts of drugs and alcohol. In a single day, he bought eight big-screen televisions for friends.

"He didn't have the right people around him at the time, people who could have guided him," recalled his cousin. "A lot of people asked a lot of him."

Mr. Muswagon tried starting up his own business only to watch it flop. The company, called Gerald's Logging, was cutting lumber in the Norway House area but was bleeding money because of low sales.

There were other bad decisions, including the October 2000 night in which he led police on a lengthy chase while driving his brand new Chevy Silverado at speeds reaching 180 km/h. He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and was sentenced to three months in jail.

He continued his criminal ways in November of 2002 when he repeatedly fondled a 19-year-old woman he had asked to help tidy his house while he mourned the sudden death of his wife, Virginia, only weeks earlier.

This past summer, he pleaded guilty to sexual assault and was given three months in jail, which he was allowed to serve intermittently on weekends so he could continue working during the week.

Mr. Muswagon's criminal record dated back to 1981 and included seven other convictions for crimes including assault causing bodily harm, drunk driving, theft and break and enter.

"Unfortunately, he had a very difficult time adjusting, coming from Norway House with very little education," said Tim Valgardson, Mr. Muswagon's lawyer.

SPRINGFIELD -- A federal jury convicted a former Lincoln woman who was a $1 million lottery winner of lying under oath at her bankruptcy hearing.

Karen Diane Cohen, 53, now of Edmonds, Wash., was found guilty, said Jan Paul Miller, Attorney for the Central District of Illinois in a statement Thursday. The jury deliberated about an hour.

Evidence at the trial which began Monday showed in June 1982, Cohen, then of Lincoln, won $1 million in the Illinois State Lottery paid in 20 annual installments of $50,000, the statement said. When Cohen divorced in 1984, a court order required she pay her ex-husband $9,000 from each payment.

Other evidence showed when Cohen filed for personal bankruptcy in 2000, she tried to get out of paying her former husband the portions of the winnings from 2000 and 2001, when the last payment was due.

The jury found in December 2000 during a bankruptcy hearing, she lied when she said she had not received the checks for her ex-husbands share of the lottery proceeds in 1997 and 1998. Based on her statements, the bankruptcy judge discharged Cohen's debt for 2000 and 2001.

The maximum penalty for making a false statement is up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

Troy Dennis, Jr. won some money in the lottery. But thats where his luck ended. Police discovered Dennis stole the winning scratch-off ticket from a 7-11 store on Foothill Boulevard on Aug. 19.

Dennis, 19, and two other masked men who are still at large, robbed the store near 167th Avenue in unincorporated San Leandro at gunpoint, according to Detective Michael Carroll of the Alameda County Sheriffs Department. They took a batch of lottery tickets.

The incident was recorded on the stores surveillance camera, said Det. Carroll. Dennis was wearing the same clothes and shoes on the tape as the day he was arrested.

According to Det. Carroll, Dennis was told to mail the winning ticket to the California State Lottery Commission. The ticket had already been red-flagged by the commission as stolen.

Det. Carroll requested the commission send Dennis a letter to his Antioch home, inviting him to pick up his winnings at the lotterys Hayward office last Wednesday.

When Dennis  accompanied by his grandmother  arrived at the office, he was greeted by law enforcement officers and arrested. He was arraigned last Friday in Hayward and charged with robbery and receiving stolen property. His grandmother was not implicated in the crimes, according to Det. Carroll.

The winning ticket was worth only $5 but the lottery commission told Dennis it was worth $550 to entice him to pick up his winnings.

The other two suspects in the Aug. 19 robbery are described as young black males wearing dark clothing.

Anyone with information is asked to call Det. Michael Carroll at 667-7924 or the Sheriffs tip line at 667-3622.

TAMPA - Nathaniel Jackson, one of two suspects accused of murdering Tampa businessman Jeffrey Dampier Jr. in July, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment today. Jackson and Dampier's sister-in-law, Victoria Jackson, 23, are accused of kidnapping the former Illinois lottery winner, robbing him of thousands of dollars, beating him and shooting him to death.

Victoria Jackson, who is also Nathaniel Jackson's girlfriend, entered a not guilty plea in August.

While the Jacksons have different attorneys, they're expected to be tried together. At the next court hearing, Oct. 19, the prosecution plans to announce whether it will seek the death penalty, prosecutor Jalal Harb said.

CHARLESTON, West Virginia -- More than 1,500 complaints have been filed in a Wood County sewer project being completed by a company owned by record Powerball winner Jack Whittaker, about one complaint for every customer the Union Williams Public Service District project would serve.

Diversified Enterprise and its subcontractor, Zion Inc., allegedly have sliced water, sewer, gas and power lines, cut down trees and knocked down fences, according to complaints filed with the PSD, located in Waverly.

The sewer project started in March 2004 and was supposed to be completed by last March, said Jerry Dotson, general manager of the Union Williams PSD. The number of complaints does not mean that each of the approximately 1,500 customers sent one, Dotson said, as some complained several times.

"We haven't been real happy with how some of the complaints have turned out," Dotson said.

Meanwhile, officials from the Affiliated Construction Trades Foundation are calling for an investigation into Whittaker's connections to Holley Brothers Construction Co. Inc. of Gallipolis, Ohio.

The construction company owes more than $1.3 million to the West Virginia Workers' Compensation Fund, said T.J. Obrakta, general counsel for the Workers' Compensation Commission.

Whittaker said the complaints are without merit and that the union has targeted him because his company is nonunion.

Thank You San Antonio College Students For Explaining
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What would your life be like if you won hundreds of millions of dollars?Click here.

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